Packaging machine



y 1965 w. w. THOMPSON 3,195,290

PACKAGING MACHINE 2 SheetsShee't 1 Filed April 24, 1961 I l I I n JNVENTOR. WILLIAM W. THOMPSON ATTORNEYS- y 20, 1955 w. w. THOMPSON 3,195,290

PACKAGING MACHINE Filed April 24, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 56A 56 V I 1 34 n INVENTOR.

WILLIAM W. THOMPSON,

ATTORNEYS.

United States Patent 3,195,296 PACKAGING MACHINE William W. Thompson, Pair-All Corporation, 3985 Race Road, Cincinnati 11, Ohio Filed Apr. 24, 1961, Ser. No. 104,886 4 Claims. (Cl. 533-132) This invention relates to packaging machines and more specifically to a type of such machines known as baggers wherein a longitudinally folded web of a bag forming material, such as polyethylene, .is drawn about the article to be packaged and the opposing sides of the web concurrently heat sealed and severed to define an article enclosing package.

While baggers of the general type under consideration have hitherto been proposed, such prior art devices have been unduly large and cumbersome, and have been of relatively complicated construction, all of which has made them relatively expensive. In addition, due to their complexity of design, they have been difiicult to adjust to suit them to the packaging of different size articles; and in addition they have been expensive to maintain and repair.

With the foregoing difiiculties in mind, a principal object of the instant invention is the provision of a greatly simplified and yet highly efiicient packaging machine readily adapted to manual, semi-automatic, or fully automatic operation.

A further object of the instant invention is the provision of a packaging machine of the character described which may be readily adjusted to form packages of varying sizes.

Still a further object of the instant invention is the provision of a packaging machine incorporating novel means for feeding and advancing the folded web of bag forming material, the arrangement of parts being such as to assure uniformity in the size of the bag walls irrespective of the size of the bags being formed.

Still another object of the instant invention is the provision of a packaging machine for use with heat-sealable packaging materials incorporating an improved heat sealing unit which guards against accidental contact between the bag forming material and the heated sealing bar.

Yet a further object of the instant invention is the provision of an improved rocker arm mechanism for bringing the bag-forming material in contact with the heat sealing means, which rocker arm mechanism is readily adapted for either manual, semi-automatic or fully automatic operation.

The foregoing objectives, together with other objectives which will appear hereinafter or which will be apparent to the skilled Worker in the art upon reading these specifications, I accomplish by those constructions and arrangements of parts of which I shall now describe certain exemplary embodiments.

.Reference is now made to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a packaging device in accordance with the instant invention.

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view with parts broken away of the rocker arm and actuation bar.

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional view taken along the line 33 of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged vertical sectional view similar to FIGURE 3 but illustrating the parts in an alternative position of use.

FIGURE 5 is a horizontal sectional view taken along the line 5-5 of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 6 is an enlarged rear elevational view of a modified form of the invention incorporating automatic actuation means.

Referring first to FIGURE 1 of the drawings, I have therein illustrated a packaging device comprising a vertical standard 1 mounted on a suitable base 2 which may con veniently comprise a pair of spaced apart feet 3 and 4 projecting forwardly from the standard 1 so as to underlie the various operating components of the machine. In this connection, it will be noted that all of the components of the machine are supported by the vertical standard 1 and are arranged in generally vertical alignment, there by minimizing the space requirements for the device.

The basic components of the machine comprise an unwind roller 5 which mounts a roll of bag forming material 6, a film separator 7, a rocker arm 8 mounting a pressure pad 9 and having a manual actuating lever 10, a heating unit 1-1 arranged to enact with the pressure pad 9, and a vertically adjustable bag tray 12.

In the general operation of the device, the roll of bag forming material 6 will comprise a continuous Web of a heat sealable material, such as polyethylene film, which has been folded upon itself to provide a double thickness web having a folded longitudinal edge, which edge lies to the rear of the machine as the web is advanced downwardly for contact with the film separator 7. As can be best seen in FIGURE 5, the film separator is in the form of a V-shaped plate the legs of which terminate at their free ends in outturned flanges 13 which are engaged by the U-shaped mounting bracket 14 the base of which is fixedly secured to the standard 1. The apex 15 of the separator 7 provides a round edge lying immediately in front of the standard 7 but in spaced relation thereto so that the folded edge of the bag forming material may move therealong with the opposite Wall forming portions of the web, which are indicated at 6a and 6b in FIG- URE l, juxtaposed to the outer surfaces of the separator 7. Thus, as the web is moved downwardly about the separator, its opposite sides 6a and 6b will be expanded so that an article to be packaged may be inserted therebetween by inserting the article between the opposite walls of the separator or immediately therebeneath.

In order to accurately align the opposite sides of the web as it is fed to the heat sealing unit, I provide a pair of closely spaced apart guide rods 16 and 17, as best seen in FIGURE 5, between which the web of bag forming material is fed. These guide rods may be conveniently mounted at their rearmost ends to the standard 1 and at their opposite ends to a name plate or like support 18 projecting upwardly from the film separator 7. As will be noted from FIGURE 5 of the drawings, the guide rods 16 and 17 are offset laterally to one side of the vertical center line of the device; whereas, as will be seen from FIGURE 1, the heating unit 11 is offset laterally on the opposite side of the vertical center line of the device.

The offsetting of the parts is such that the distance traveled by the side of the bag web 6a between the guide rods and the heating unit is exactly equal to the distance traveled by the side 6b of the Web. In addition to assuring uniformity in the lengths of the opposite walls of the bags being formed, this arrangement also permits the rolls of bag forming material to be unwound from either the right or left side. This has a decided practical advantage in that the doubled Webs are usually formed in pairs of opposite hand; and it has heretoforebeen necessary for one of the webs to be rewound before use.

The heat sealing unit 11 is mounted to the standard 1 by means of a bracket 19 and comprises an elongated rectangular housing 20 in which is mounted a centrally disposed elongated relatively thin sealing bar 21 the free side edge of which projects outwardly in the manner illus-. trated. It will be understood that the sealing bar will be heated by means of one or more suitable heating elements 22 mounted within the housing and suitably insulated, as by means of insulation material 23, the heating unit being thermostatically controlled by means of the thermostat 24, which is preferably manually adjustable. Accidental contact between the Webs of bag forming material and the sealing bar 21 is prevented by means of a series of guards, which preferablycomprise stationary upper,

guard 25' inclined downwardly in the manner illustrated, stationary lower guard 26 inclined upwardly in the manner illustrated, and intermediate movable guard 27. All three of these guards may be conveniently formed from wire stock, with the upper and lower guards 25 and 26 fixedly secured, as by welding, to the housing 22. The intermediate or movable guard 27 has its opposite ends pivotally secured to ears 28 so that'it may be readily pivoted from the position illustrated in'FIGURES to the position illustrated in FIGURE 4. When the guard 27- is in its normal position of use, as illustrated in FIGURE 3, it will be evident that the bag forming material, which is usually a very thin and highly flexible film, is prevented from being blown or otherwise accidentally caused to pass between the stationary guards 25 and 26 and hence into contact with the heated sealing bar. Yet when it is desired to bring the opposite sides of the web 'into sealing contact with the sealing bar, the movable guard is readily: displaced to the position illustrated in FIGURE 4 by the pressure pad 9 which, upon actuation of the rocker arm 8,

acts to juxtapose the opposite sides of the bag forming :30

web and bring them into sealing contact withithe sealing bar 21. It will be evident that as the pressure pad is Withdrawn from between the stationary guards 25 and 26, the 1 the rod 31 is rotatably received in a sleeve 33 secured toa bracket34 mounted on the standard 1, the shaft 31 extending through the bracket and carrying on its free end a lever arm 35 totwhich. a counterweight 36 is attached. A link member 37 connects the lever arm 35 to the rearmost end of the actuating lever 10 which is pivotally connected to a depending; bracket 38 secured to the U-shaped mounting member. 14; It will be evident that when the free or forward end of the actuating lever 10 is moved downwardly, the link 37 will be moved upwardly to raise. lever arm 35 and hence rotate shaft 31, thereby swinging the rocker arm assembly 8 in a counterclockwise direction for contact with the heating unit. Upon the release of the actuating lever 10, the counterweight 36' will act to move the lever arm 35 downwardly, thereby swinging the rocker arm assembly to the opened position.

In the'operation of the device, the opposite walls 6a and 6b of the bag forming material will be advanced downwardly about the opposite sides of the separator 7 and downwardly between the rocker arm assembly 8 and the heating unit 11, whereupon the rocker arm assembly will be actuated to effect a heat sealbetween the opposite sides of the web. Such heat sealing. also acts to sever the bag tray 12 which is positioned so that the article i being packaged, when it contacts the bag tray 12, will have its uppermost edge lying just below theheat sealing unit and rocker arm assembly.v The operator then actuates the lever 10 to effect a heat seal between the opposite sides of the bag forming material immediately above the. article being packaged, thereby effectively enclosing the article in a bag the opposite side edges of which are defined by heat seal seams and the bottom or rear edge of which is defined by the folded edge of the web or" bag forming material. The heat'sealing operation, as alreadyindicated, also acts to sever the web of bag forming material and hence the packaged article falls free and may be removed from the bag tray 12. In order to accommodate articles of different sizes, the bag tray 12 ismounted on a bracket39 which is adjustably secured to a mounting bracket 40 secured tothe standard l.

Inthe machine just described the operation is wholly manual in that the operator inserts the article between the opposite walls of the bag forming material, moves it downwardly until it contacts the bag tray, and then manually. actuates the lever 16 to heat seal the upper side edge of thebag being formed and sever it from the web of bag forming'material. However, it is within the spirit and purpose of the invention to provide the device just described with an automatic cycle of operation, an exemplary embodiment of which is illustrated in FIGURE 6 of the drawings.

As seen in FIGURE 6, wherein'like parts have been given like reference numerals, the standard 1, on its'rear side, mounts an air filter 41 having an inlet port 4-2 adapted to be connected to a source of air under pressure. The filter is operatively connected to, an air regulator 43 and a pressure gauge 44 by means of which a uniform pressure may be established at the outlet port 45 to which a T-fitting .46 is secured, the T-fitting 46 providing branch conduits 47 and 48 controlled by solenoid valves 49 and 50, respectively. It will be understood that these valves, which are electrically actuated, will be connected through suitable wiring to the junction box 5]. having a connection to a suitable source of electric current through electric cord52.

The bag tray 12 is provided with an actuating switch 53 arranged to be closed upon contact therewith by an article deposited thereon. Closing of the switch 53 acts through circuit 54 to energize solenoid 49 and open the connection 5 to the flow of compressed air therethrough. Thus, compressed air is passed through the conduit 56 to one end ofa pneumatic cylinder 57 the piston rod 58 of which is connected to a lever arm 59 "secured to the shaft 31 which, it will be remembered, controls the movement of the rocker arm assembly 8. The speed at which the rocker arm assembly is moved may be controlled by means of the speed control valve 60 which may be manually adjusted to meter the flow of air-to the cylinder 57.

The dwell time of the rocker arm assembly, i.e. the length of time it remains in contact with the heating bar, iscontrolled by means of the dwell cylinder 61 to which air under pressure is fed through conduit 62, the rate of flow of such air being controlled by control valve 63. As the piston rod of dwell cylinder 61 moves downwardly it actuates a control switch 64"efiective to deenergize solenoid 49 and hence cut off the flow of air both to cylinders 57 'and 61, the solenoid valve 49 upon being closed acting to vent the conduits 56 and 62 to the outside air, thereby permitting, the pistons in the cylinders 57 and 61 to return to their retracted positions,

7 the cylinders being of the type wherein their pistons are spring biased to such position.

It is also desirable to provide the device with a brake cylinder 65 mounted at the top of the standard 1,

the cylinder. being connected throughconduit 66 to the connection 55; Thus, the cylinder 65 will be energized concurrently with the rocker arm actuating cylinder 57 and will hold the roll of bag forming material 6 against unwinding movement during the time the heat seal is being effected.

When an article to be packaged is inserted between the opposite walls of the bag forming web and the web moved downwardly for contact with the bag tray, the weight of the article being packaged places the bag forming material under tension; and in some instances such tension has been found to adversely affect the formation of the seal. This is particularly true where the object being packaged is of irregular shape and tends to distort the opposite sides of the web. Such tension may be readily relieved by mounting the :bag .tray 12 on a tray raising cylinder 67 which is connected through conduit 68 to the outlet side of solenoid valve 49. Thus, when the article to be packaged contacts the bag tray 12 and acts to energize the solenoid 49, air under pressure will be introduced through conduit 68 into cylinder 67 which acts to raise the tray 12 an inch or two, thereby relieving the tension on the bag forming web. A control valve 69 may be provided in the conduit 68 to regulate the flow of air to the cylinder 67 and hence its speed of op eration.

In order to make the packaging ope-ration even more automatic, the lift tray may be pivotally mounted and provided with a dump cylinder 70 connected through a conduit 71 to the solenoid 50 which is adapted to be energized by a dump control switch 72 which may be conveniently located adjacent the dwell time control switch 64. Thus, when the dwell cylinder 61 has moved downwardly so as to actuate control switch 64 to de-energize solenoid valve 49, the switch 72 may be simultaneously actuated to initiate movement of solenoid valve 50 which in turn supplied air under pressure to the dump cylinder, which acts to tilt bag tray 12 and dump the packaged article contained thereon into an awaiting container or the like. The switch 72 may be of the time dwell type which will de-energize solenoid 59 after a short interval, thereby permitting the tray to return to its normally horizontal position. As before, a control valve 73 may be provided to regulate the flow of air to the dump cylinder 70.

With all of the automatic controls described hereinabove, the device is essentially automatic in operation in that the operator may place an article to be packaged between the film separator while the rocker arm assembly is in the closed position, whereupon, when the rocker arm reopens, the brake cylinder 65 will release the roll of material 6 for downward movement, and the weight of the article will draw the web downwardly until it contacts the bag tray 12 and actuating switch 53, whereupon the solenoid 49 will be energized to close the rocker arm assembly and effect the seal. It should also be evident that portions only of the automatic control system may be utilized. For example, the solenoid 50 and dumping cylinder 70 could be eliminated, in which event the operator would have to manually remove the completed packages from the bag tray. Similarly, the automatic controls could be limited to the rocker actuating cylinder 57 and dwell cylinder 61, in which event a manually actuated switch 74 could be employed to initiate actuation of the solenoid 49. It should also be obvious that a switch similar to switch 74 could be conveniently placed for actuation by the operator, such switch to serve as a manual release in the event any part of the mechanism should malfunction.

Various other modifications will undoubtedly occur to the skilled worker in the art upon reading these specifications and consequently I do not intend the invention to be limited in its scope excepting in the manner set forth in the claims which follow. For example, when the solenoid 49 is in the closed or vented position, the compressed air discharged through the valve may be directed outwardly along the sealing bar, thereby acting to cool the bottom seam of the next bag being formed as well as assist in displacing it from contact with the r 6 a heating bar. Having, however, described my invention in certain exemplary embodiments, what I desire to secure and protect by Letters Patent is:

1. In a packaging machine wherein a roll of a doubled web of heat sealable material is drawn about an article to be packaged and formed into an article enclosing bag, the improved apparatus comprising:

(a) a vertical standard;

(b) outwardly projecting roll mounting means at the top of said standard adapted to mount a roll of heat sealable material with the free edges of said doubled web outermost;

(c) a generally V-shaped web separator secured to said standard and extending outwardly therefrom, said separator underlying said roll mounting means in vertical alignment therewith, whereby the opposite sides of the doubled Web will be moved apart as the web is drawn downwardly about said separator;

(d) a heat sealing means secured to and extending outwardly from said standard and underlying said web separator, said heat sealing means including an elongate heating unit lying to one side of the vertical center line of said apparatus, as defined by said standard, said heating unit comprising an elongate housing having an open front, a heating bar mounted in said housing, elongate stationary guard means associated with said open front of said housing and defining a narrow elongate opening, and a movable guard pivotally mounted in said housing; and a rocker arm assembly including an elongate pressure pad on the the opposite side of said vertical center line, said rocker arm assembly being movable from an inoperative position in which said assembly lies on the opposite side of said vertical center line to an operative position in which it traverses said vertical center line and said pressure pad contacts said heating unit, said rocker arm assembly and said pressure pad being positioned to contact said heat sealable material and carry it into contact with said heating unit as said assembly is moved from said inoperative to said operative position, said movable guard being movable by said rocker arm assembly from an operative position in which said guard lies in said open front of said heating bar to an inoperative position in which said movable guard is displaced by said rocker arm assembly to permit said heat sealable material to contact said heating bar, thereby severing the doubled web along a line of severance in alignment with said heat sealing means and forming a transverse heat sealed seam joining together the opposite sides of the doubled web both above and below said line of severance.

(e) a vertically adjustable tray mounted on said standard and extending outwardly therefrom in a position underlying said heat sealing unit in vertical alignment with said web separator, whereby an article to be packaged may be inserted in said web separator above said heat sealing unit.

2. The packaging machine claimed in claim 1 wherein said guard comprises an elongated rod terminating at its ends in angularly disposed feet the ends of which are ing bar is exposed to said opening.

References Ciied by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS Anderson. 7

Fry et a1. 5377 X Paton et al.' 53182 X Dawson et a1 5377 Bracey 53182 10 -Mitche1l 53--182 X Herman 53182 Gwinn et a1; 53182 Weishaus.

Stuhlrnan .53256 Hosso 53182 FRANK E. BAILEY, Primary Examiner.

ROBERT A. LEIGHEY, ROBERT E. PULFREY,

Examiners. 

1. IN A PACKAGING MACHINE WHEREIN A ROLL OF A DOUBLED WEB OF HEAT SEALABLE MATERIAL IS DRAWN ABOUT AN ARTICLE TO BE PACKAGED AND FORMED INTO AN ARTICLE ENCLOSING BAG, THE IMPROVED APPARATUS COMPRISING: 